Pace, challenge, engagement and differentiation: clearing up the confusion.

Last week we had some external CPD at our school. It was quite good as far as these things go; interactive, practical and with lots of ideas for activities that were lesson ready without heavily adding to the planning/creating resources workload. You’d have to have been a serious cynic not to be able to take at least one thing you could use, regardless of your subject specialism. The training itself kicked off with a question: which is the teacher in this image?

Some teachers said they felt like the mice, constantly performing to entertain the students and expelling copious amounts of energy. Some said they felt like the dog, carrying everyone along, panting and getting knackered in the process. Still others claimed they were the bike (not sure how they arrived at this analogy). But nobody said the cat. And yet, if we’re doing it right, as teachers, we really should be the cat. The cat is clearly the one in charge. It appears to be doing very little other than holding the pole on which the performing mice are precariously balanced. But in actual fact it is the central